The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for controlling communications networks, and routing therefor. Particularly, but not exclusively, the present invention can be employed to control call divert or data transfer in a communications network.
Call divert, also known as call forward or call re-direct, is a facility available in most modern telephone networks and on most modern PABXs Iprivate automatic branch exchanges) which allows a party to re-direct calls, directed to a first telephone, to a second telephone or other type of communications terminal. In the BT public switched telephone network (PSTN), for example, call divert can be initiated from a telephone by lifting the receiver and entering xe2x80x9c*21*xe2x80x9d followed by the telephone number to which the calls are to be diverted and then xe2x80x9c#xe2x80x9d. This series of key strokes has the effect of diverting all calls directed to the telephone to a different telephone having the telephone number provided. To remove the call divert, it is a simple case of lifting the receiver of the diverted telephone and entering xe2x80x9c#21#xe2x80x9d. Other telephone operators and communications networks offer similar services.
For the purposes of the present description, first or xe2x80x9clocalxe2x80x9d telephone will be used as a convenient description for any telephone, or other communications terminal for which incoming calls can be diverted to a second or xe2x80x9cremotexe2x80x9d telephone (or other communications terminal). An example of another type of communications terminal is a facsimile machine. Typically, but not always, xe2x80x9clocalxe2x80x9d would imply equipment located at a party""s home or in his normal, immediate office environment.
Originally, call divert was typically controlled in a PSTN, at a local exchange to which the local telephone was connected, by xe2x80x98loopingxe2x80x99 calls received for the local telephone to a remote telephone connected to a remote exchange. Thus, a re-directed call would in fact comprise two calls: one to the local exchange and one from the local exchange to the remote exchange. More recently, some telephone networks incorporate a level of intelligence which detects that a call is to be re-directed and instructs the originating exchange to connect with the remote exchange directly, thus bypassing the local exchange completely. Such xe2x80x98intelligent networksxe2x80x99 employ various techniques to control calls in this way which have been widely reported and are thus not described in more detail in the present description.
Obviously, call divert is a useful service to enable a party to redirect his calls in the event the party is away from the telephone. To take advantage of the service, the party will need both to know the telephone number of a remote telephone (fixed or mobile), available for use away from the local telephone, and to remember to initiate call divert at the local telephone.
A problem therefore arises if the party forgets to initiate call divert before leaving his local working area.
Some telephone systems provide a function, sometimes know as xe2x80x9cfollow-mexe2x80x9d, which allows a party to control call divert for his local telephone from a remote telephone. This overcomes the problem of forgetting to initiate call divert in the first place, but does not solve the problem of when the party forgets entirely to initiate call divert.
In accordance with a first aspect, the present invention provides a call control apparatus comprising: inference means for inferring the absence of a party from the vicinity of a piece of user equipment, said inference means including a timer and being arranged to infer user absence by the lack of user interaction with the piece of user equipment for longer than a pre-determined period of time; and control means being responsive to said inference means such that inference of user absence from the vicinity of said piece of user equipment causes a call made to a first communications terminal to be re-directed to a second communications terminal.
One advantage of the invention is that a party need not remember to initiate call divert when the party leaves, for example, his desk.
Advantageously, the user equipment may be a computer system and the inference means may include a screen-saver process performed by said computer system. That is to say, when the computer is idle for the pre-determined period of time, the process infers that the party is absent and initiates call divert irrespective of whether in fact the party is present or absent.
This arrangement would be particularly advantageous, for example, for a party who works predominantly at the computer whilst in his local environment, but who also may be called away from his local environment on occasion. Such a party might be, for example, a computer network support specialist who is able to control most network functions from his own computer terminal but who needs at times to visit remote terminals or equipment to investigate certain other network problems which might arise.
In some embodiments, the second communications terminal might be, for example, a mobile telephone. Advantageously, a party will receive his redirected calls substantially wherever the party is, whenever the party is away from his normal working environment and is carrying the mobile telephone.
In accordance with a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of re-directing calls comprising: inferring the absence of a user from an area by detecting the lack of user interaction with a piece of user equipment; and re-directing calls made to a first communications terminal situated in or near said area, in response to an inferred absence, from the first communications terminal to a second communications terminal.
In accordance with a third aspect, the present invention provides a data transfer system comprising: inference means to infer the absence of a user from an area, said inference means including timer means and being arranged to infer user absence by the lack of user interaction with a piece of user equipment for longer than a pre-determined period of time; and control means being responsive to the inference means such that inference of user absence from the vicinity of said piece of user equipment causes, in use, a transfer of data previously directed to a first communicationand terminal in or near said area to be redirected to a second communications terminal.
Whereas the first aspect of the invention relates typically to conditions where an end-to-end call is established to provide, for example, a speech path, the third aspect relates in general to conditions where data transfer from one location to another does not necessarily use an end-to-end connection. For example, the third aspect might relate to packet-switched data, or to store and forward type data such as electronic mail (email) which might only be delivered to the intended destination minutes or hours after being sent.
For the use of email, the owner of an email address can typically manually re-direct incoming mail by signalling to a respective email server, or email post office, that incoming emails should be sent elsewhere. This facility might be used to re-direct emails when the said owner is on holiday, for example, and wants emails read and acted on by someone else if necessary. Such a facility can be controlled in accordance with embodiments of the invention, to re-direct email to another party""s email system when the owner is away from his office, using the detection and control methods described above.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: